Introduction
The Human Resource department is the backbone of the entire organization. Human Resource professionals hire and nurture the organization’s most important asset — the people.
HR team creates a positive workplace culture by recruiting individuals with the right mindset, promoting a diverse and inclusive environment, and encouraging collaboration and teamwork.
The generic roles of the HR department are the same for every industry. HR professionals are responsible for building and implementing effective policies and procedures for recruitment, onboarding, and employee involvement. Objectives and Key Results helps HR define attainable and measurable goals to improve employee satisfaction.
In this article, we will discuss the importance of OKRs for HR and some practical OKRs to achieve company goals and boost employee productivity.
What Is OKR?
Objectives and Key Results (commonly referred to as OKR) is a collaborative strategy for setting challenging goals and somewhat impossible objectives with measurable results. OKRs help enhance focus, promote transparency, and drive results in an organizational setup.
OKRs align individual, team, and company-wide objectives towards collective efforts, guaranteeing success. OKRs can be decided by a company’s top officials, team members, or project leads.
Ideally, every objective in OKR methodology must be associated with three to five key results. Additionally, having a reasonable number of OKRs can drive more focus and produce positive outcomes.
The standard company goals are typically long-term plans, needing a few years for accomplishment. In comparison, OKR is a set of goals defined in short timeframes providing complete guidelines about making the right decisions and actions at the right time.
Good OKRs are easy to write; they follow a simple format and are easy to understand and track. The objectives should be meaningful and inspiring, and the key results must be measurable, realistic, and verifiable.
Bad OKRs include goals unaligned with the company’s strategic plans and hard to track. Bad OKRs focus more on outputs (projects) rather than outcomes (metrics).
OKR strategy is composed of the following three basic elements:
- Objective: One-line statement that demonstrates the goal in plain and easy terms. Objectives should tell what needs to be achieved over a definite period.
- Key Results: Three to five points define the desired outcomes or milestones. Key results explain the mechanism of measuring the success of the objective.
- Deadline: The time limit for achieving the objectives. The deadline can be set on a monthly/quarterly basis or on specific dates.
How Can OKRs Help the HR Team/Why Should HR Use OKRs?
HR professionals are responsible for recruiting and retaining talent for the organization. OKRs provide a time-bound model that allows the HR department to assess, improve, and transform HR practices in line with the larger organizational goals and objectives. OKR data can facilitate HR in better policy and decision-making.
The key to defining OKRs for HR is aligning HR department efforts with the company goals and employee expectations. The HR team can concentrate on areas like performance, workplace culture, hiring, employee retention, and training.
Let’s discuss some OKR examples that can facilitate the HR team below.
Focus Area: Recruitment
In today’s competitive talent market, it is important for recruiters and talent specialists to ensure a great and consistent candidate experience throughout the hiring process. Employees stick to the organizations that set the right standards to follow from the beginning. OKRs can greatly assist in smoothening the recruitment process.
Objective: Shorten the Hiring Process Timeline
- Key Result 1: Reduce the time to collect requirements and design job description to 1 week
- Key Result 2: Shorten the average response time to job applicants from 10 days to 6 days
- Key Result 3: Decrease the average time from decision to offer letter by 50% to 3 days
Objective: Promote a Smooth on-boarding Experience
- Key Result 1: Ensure 100% of new hires are provided welcome gifts
- Key Result 2: Design and offer a 2-month onboarding program
- Key Result 3: Achieve 100% onboarding program completion rate
Focus Area: Competitive Employee Benefits Policy
By responding to and taking care of employee needs in a timely manner, companies can win the trust of their workers.
Light activities with regular tasks help individuals maintain productivity and concentration. HR team must plan and devise ways to uplift the physical and psychological well-being of the employees.
Objective: Develop a Robust & Competitive Employee Leave Policy
- Key Result 1: Evaluate and finalize leave accrual policy by Q2
- Key Result 2: Evaluate and finalize leave carryover policy by Q3
- Key Result 3: Conduct at least 5 open door sessions over the next three months to evangelize the new leave policy and answer employee questions
Objective: Improve Work-Life Balance for Employees
- Key Result 1: Increase remote work-eligible employees from 40% to 60%
- Key Result 2: Offer flexible work hours to 70% of workers
- Key Result 3: Evaluate at least 5 onsite child care providers and select one by Q4
Objective: Prioritize/Foster the Physical Health of Employees
- Key Results 1: Arrange 1 free medical camp for employees every quarter
- Key Results 2: Devise 1 medical plan for employees with 70% off on medical services
- Key Results 3: Organize a free vaccination drive for employees and ensure 90% attendance
Objective: Organize Employee Wellness Programs
- Key Result 1: Arrange 2 mental health programs every quarter
- Key Result 2: Ensure 90% employee enrollment in wellness programs
- Key Result 3: Organize talks on overcoming common mental health issues
- Key Result 4: Allocate separate space for 2 indoor physical activities or games
Focus Area: Maintain Inclusive Workplace Culture
Employees prosper in a healthy work environment where they are well treated and heard. Valuing old employees for retainment is convenient and recommended. The HR department should promote and create a positive culture.
Objective: Promote Diversity and Inclusion In Team Building
- Key Result 1: Arrange a multicultural event every 6 months
- Key Result 2: Hire 5 members of different nationalities in a department
- Key Result 3: Plan giveaways and hampers for all employees on 1 religious festival
Objective: Encourage Open Communication and Collaboration
- Key Result 1: Conduct 1 open Q&A meeting with the CEO and Senior Presidents every 2 months
- Key Result 2: Create an employee complaints section to review and resolve 50% of issues within 48 hours
- Key Result 3: Arrange an employee pulse survey twice a year to receive company feedback from employees
Focus Area: Employee Engagement
Employee involvement contributes toward building a strong team and a great work experience. The HR department can take some measures to encourage and increase employee involvement.
Hiring new employees calls for more financial resources and physical efforts. Retaining the existing members is easier for cost management and better for company growth. Therefore, the HR team should work towards retaining old staff by valuing and compensating them adequately.
Objective: Plan Employee Excursions, Trips, and Events
- Key Result 1: Arrange 1 trip for all departments every quarter
- Key Result 2: Plan 1 family fun event for all employees every 6 months
- Key Result 3: Organize dinner for 5 top performing teams
Objective: Boost Employee Satisfaction
- Key Result 1: Take suggestions from 100% of employees about strategies for improvement
- Key Result 2: Increase monthly employee satisfaction score from 70% to 85%
- Key Result 3: Increase staff promotion from 60% to 75%
Objective: Improve Employee Retention
- Key Result 1: Decrease the turnover rate of top-performers from 20% to 10%
- Key Result 2: Offer monetary support packages and accommodation to 40% of old/senior employees
- Key Result 3: Organize an international trip for 10% of top performers
- Key Result 4: Increase staff promotion from 60% to 75%
Learning and adopting changing trends and practices is essential for growth. Frequently training employees enables them to perform better and helps achieve company goals.
Focus Area: Performance Management
Employees perform various jobs and tasks in the organization. Monitoring their performance is critical to ensure task completion and team success. Companies can take steps to work towards quality enhancement and performance improvement.
Objective: Introduce Fresh Training Programs for Employees
- Key Result 1: Organize 2 personal training sessions for employees in 6 months
- Key Result 2: Ensure 90% of employee attendance in all training programs
- Key Result 3: Increase employee training satisfaction from 60% to 80%
Objective: Encourage Employee Upskilling
- Key Result 1: Ensure 90% participation of team members on weekly check-ins with managers
- Key Result 2: Develop & communicate leveling guides in all functional areas for employees to understand promotion pathways by the end of the year.
- Key Result 3: Develop a reimbursement policy for certain certifications by the end of the quarter.
Objective: Evaluate Manager Performance
- Key Result 1: Assess at least three feedback-gathering tools and implement one by the end of the year
- Key Result 2: Conduct anonymous employee surveys to assess manager performance every quarter
- Key Result 3: Address HR complaints against managers within 60 days
Summary
OKR framework can help organizations track and reach their goals. Defining objectives aligned with business goals and vision is an essential practice for the organization’s success. With careful planning and correct implementation of OKRs, the HR team can effortlessly track goals. Transform your HR team’s OKR approach to maximize productivity and guarantee employee satisfaction.